BODY SIZE SELECTION IN ACANTHOSCELIDES-ALBOSCUTELLATUS (COLEOPTERA, BRUCHIDAE)

Direct observations and analyses of selection occurring in natural populations are rare. The biology of the bruchid beetle, Acanthoscelides alboscutellatus, on its host plant, Ludwigia alternifolia, provides an unusual opportunity to study the process of selection on the morphology of an organism under field conditions. A. alboscutellatus larvae mature within the variably dehiscent fruit of L. alternifolia. At eclosion, adults are confined within indehiscent fruit but are not confined within dehiscent fruit. Beetles can escape from indehiscent fruit only by forcing their bodies through the fruit's apical pore (a circular opening in the top of the fruit). Thus, during the eclosion stage of this beetle's life cycle the relationship between body size and differential fitness appears to be clearly defined. We examined entrapment of A. alboscutellatus within indehiscent L. alternifolia fruit in a natural population. Only 8.8% of the beetles that attempted to escape were successful. Smaller beetles were trapped within a narrower range of pore diameters than were larger beetles; and trapped beetles had only limited abilities to enlarge fruit pore diameter. These data suggest (1) that escape from indehiscent fruit is regulated by the relationship between adult body diameter and fruit pore diameter and (2) that adult beetles may experience strong selection for small body diameter (size) within indehiscent fruit.